Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Honor the Gods by sacrifices at the Qenko temple, Cusco

The Qenko Inca site is in fact a holy place, a Wak'a. From the outside it looks like a rocky hill but once you explore it further, you see entrances and corridors between the rocks. We followed our guide through this small maze and came to a stone carved altar.

The altar was used for several activities. The most occurring was sacrificing animals to please the Gods and request prosperity for the Inca community living here. When the living circumstances were difficult, they had to make more offers so that their situation could improve. The altar was also used to mummify the most prominent deceased members of the Inca community.

Did the Inca's also sacrifice humans? Yes, they did but not at Qenko. Humans were not sacrificed like animals on an altar. Our guide explained it was extremely rare and only children prepared for this task were used. From when they were born, some children were selected for this mission. They knew this would happen and they were prepared for it. At the age of about ten, they were taken to a very high altitude, were given some medication to sleep and because of the height and cold, a painless death followed. The bodies were mummified and buried at tempels.